The Live Music Industry's Obsession With "Immersive Experiences" Is Ruining Everything

I went to see a folk singer last week—just a woman, a guitar, and lyrics that made me cry. Except it wasn't just that. There were also: synchronized lighting rigs, a 40-foot LED screen playing abstract animations, fog rolling across the stage at emotionally "significant" moments, and—I'm not making this up—a moment where the audience was instructed to hold up their phone flashlights in unison while she played a quiet ballad.

This is the death of live music and I'm tired of pretending it isn't.

Somewhere between TikTok and the post-pandemic need to make everything "an experience," the concert industry collectively decided that watching talented musicians perform was no longer enough. Now every show needs to be a full sensory assault. Lights! Screens! Surprises! Participation! It's like someone asked "What if we made concerts worse but made them feel expensive?"

The worst part? It works. Venues pack people in for these productions, ticket prices skyrocket, and nobody questions whether any of this actually enhances the music. It doesn't. It distracts from it. That fog machine isn't making the sad song sadder—it's making it harder to see the artist's face, which is literally the point of live performance.

And don't even get me started on the "interactive element" trend. I'm at your concert to listen, not to participate in a choreographed moment that makes me feel like I'm at a corporate team-building exercise. If I wanted to hold my phone up in the air with thousands of strangers, I'd go to a sporting event. If I wanted synchronized group activities, I'd join a cult. I'm here because I like your *music.*

The irony is that the most powerful concerts I've ever attended were the opposite of immersive productions. A spotlight. A voice. People paying attention. That's it. That's the magic. When Adele performs, she doesn't need a hologram or a pyrotechnics team or a five-minute video montage. She just stands there and destroys you with her voice. (And yes, sometimes she stands there and gets emotional about it, which is somehow better than any light show.)

Here's my controversial take: if your show needs all that extra stuff to be entertaining, your show probably isn't that entertaining. The production design should enhance the performance, not replace it. Instead, we're creating this arms race where every venue feels obligated to outdo the last one, and suddenly we're all paying $200 to sit in the dark watching a screen while a band plays tiny in the distance.

Bring back the simple stuff. The raw performances. The moments where it's just you and the artist and the music is so good that you don't need fog machines to feel something.

Though honestly? A venue that stripped it all back, charged $30, and just let people hear good music without the production nightmare? That would be the most revolutionary concept in live entertainment right now.